


Puzzle Pieces

by LyssaTerald



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Dragon Age: Inquisition Spoilers, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-17
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-08-31 11:16:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8576302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LyssaTerald/pseuds/LyssaTerald
Summary: She might be real to him, but Solas missed a few things. She's clever, loyal, and intelligent. The breaking off of their relationship might not have been the end, but it was certainly a piece of the whole puzzle that he had missed.





	1. Chapter 1

She leaned one hip against her desk, her back to the doors overlooking the snowcapped mountains as she read and reread the letters and notes. The pieces were coming together and she wasn’t quite sure what to make of them.

In the beginning, with the Inquisition first forming, she hadn’t trusted its advisors, hadn’t trusted the _Chantry_. She’s reached out through letters and messengers in the hopes that the People hadn’t abandoned her to human hands. Her hopes hadn’t been misplaced. The information they could provide her might not have been as complete as what Leliana could give her, but it had been enough to soothe the fears she’d had and at least give her confidence in the information that Leliana was bringing in through her network.

So many little things had led her to this point, so many conversations and words that she had had with her companions and the Clans.

 _“You were never going to wake up. How could you, a mortal sent physically through the Fade?”_ It hadn’t made any sense to her either. She had walked through the _Beyond_ and come away with nothing more than the Mark.

 _“It seems you hold the key to our salvation.”_ Solas had said it twice and it had left an impression on her. A _key_ could do more than close a door.

 _“How does that work, exactly? You don’t even know, do you? You just wiggle your fingers and-_ boom- _rift closes?”_ The matter-of-fact questions had irked her when she had first met Dorian, before she had gotten to know him. His knowledge and connections had proven invaluable once the idea had settled in and he was _damn_ fun to work with.  

 _“To me, it says_ key _. But keys do lots of things. Open, lock, switch. Some open one thing, some open_ everything. _It sounds like Corypheus made it to open. It looks like you can use it to close. It may be that simple._ ” Dagna’s enthusiasm and skills had worn away her caution at the idea of using the Mark for something other than sealing the Breach.

Solas and Cole had taught her how to view spirits as more than _dangerous_ , as more than some _thing_ that existed within the Beyond. Cole had helped so many despite their never knowing it and she had watched his transformation with interest and learned from him as much as he could teach her about the Beyond, the Beyond. The loss of Wisdom, Solas’ friend, had shown her that they were _people_ , if not by the standard definition. They could hurt and die just as easily as anyone else.

In the Temple of Mythal, there had been the statue of Fen’Harel and the translation that had suggested that they’d gotten the translation of _Betrayer._ It had made her heart ache to think how much they had lost over the years, how much the language had changed. And _Abelas_. She’s wanted to throttle him for being so scornful of helping _their_ people, but she hadn’t missed the words he’d spoken, the _truths_ that the Well had confirmed after she had taken it into herself.

 _“The shemlen did not destroy Arlathan. We elvhen warred upon ourselves. By the time the doors to this Sanctuary closed, our time was over.”_ She’d never entirely believed that the elves had lost their immortality to the humans, never believed that the ancient elves of Arlathan would have been so broken as to _let_ the humans take over. She had seen their strength and power lingering within the Crossroads. There had to have been a catalyst of some kind.

And in that same temple, in that same stretch of time, Solas had spoken to Abelas as though he had _known_ something and Abelas’s response had been, _“Elvhen such as_ you _?”_ The question had been imparted to _Solas_ who had had nothing but scorn for _her_ people. It had been another piece to consider. And then, “ _‘Elvhen’ legend is wrong. The Dread Wolf had nothing to do with her murder. She was slain, if a god truly can be, betrayed by those who destroyed this temple.”_ That had been _interesting_ and something she was still struggling to piece together with _Flemeth_ , not because she didn’t understand but because the implications were staggering.

Then, there had been the _ancient talking, darkspawn Magister_ that had convinced her of a few things, namely that the old stories and histories might not be entirely wrong. She’d scorned the Chantry’s tale of how their _Maker_ had created the world and then created the Beyond, their _Fade_. But what if- _what if_ -the magisters _had_ met something that had changed the fabric of what they had been? What if their Black City, the one constant in the Beyond, was something other than a “throne” as they had believed it? _What if_ it was the location where Fen’Harel had banished the ones the Dalish worshipped as their Creators? She still had nightmares about the answer the Well had tried to feed her.

Her hand passed over her face, her fingers linger where her vallaslin had lain across her cheeks for so long. She’d let Solas cast his spell, trusting him when he had told her of how the marks had been ones of slavery. It had fit too well with everything else she had gathered up.

There had been other conversations between them, moments where he had said things that _almost_ connected to something larger before he had backtracked and tried to explain away those slips, but they lingered still.

 _“I had forgotten how I missed court intrigue.”_ He’d been so stiff and angry when she’d tried to tease him about it and he’d tried to explain it away as dreams within the Beyond. She hadn’t forgotten and Abelas had made her wonder if it couldn’t be part of the puzzle too.

And now, _now_ , the questions she had posed to the Clans were finally coming back with more information than she could have hoped for when she sent out the missives requesting locations where the Veil was thinnest, where the Clans avoided. There were still other things that she needed to understand, other questions that she had to have answers for, things that had to _wait_ until after Corypheus was defeated, but- _really_ -she was just avoiding the conversation she didn’t want to have.

_“In another world-”_

She swallowed the tears that threatened to overtake her. He had made a choice and that was fine. It had to be, but she couldn’t forget the way his shoulders had dropped, the way he had _walked away_.  

_“Why not this one?”_

He hadn’t had an answer for her. It didn’t matter, _couldn’t_ , except that it did. It was the words that were ringing in her ears when she left the notes and letters and descended the stairs of her room.


	2. Chapter 2

Standing in the doorway to the rotunda with her arms wrapped around her stomach, she studied the relaxed slope of his shoulders. Solas stood with his back to her, his head bent over something he was reading. If he had noticed her, his body language gave nothing away. For a moment, _just one_ , she wanted to pretend that nothing had changed. Maybe if she asked about his adventures in the Beyond, he’d…

Slowly, she forced herself to change her body language and relax if just a little. It _had_ happened. He had made a choice and that mattered. His choice to have ended it, to have assumed he was _distracting_ her from her duty when she knew it well enough. _Her_ duty was to keep the world from being set on fire by a madman and keep her People safe. Her gentle inquiries had borne fruit and the first part of her duty was almost done. She just had to fight another dragon to do it…not that she hadn’t already _done_ that nine or ten times. With Solas at her side, guarding and fighting as hard as she ever had. It would be different this time, but it was what had to be done. Duty before personal distractions.

She studied him, watching the set of his shoulders and remembered the way they had been bowed when he had walked away from her. Whatever his actual reasons, it had hurt him to walk away, too. It wasn’t a thought to take comfort in, but it was _something_. Her posture relaxed until her arms were simply wrapped around one another rather than a defensive posture.

“Solas,” she said softly.

His shoulders tensed before he turned to look at her, his face a carefully neutral mask.

“Inquisitor,” he acknowledged stiffly, a wariness in it that hadn’t been there since Haven. “How may I help you prepare for our final battle?”

It took her a moment to register what he was doing and another moment to decide that, _nope_ , he wasn’t going to get away with it. Formality was fine. Trying to pretend he had never had kissed her until she was breathless wasn’t going to happen. Her lips curled, whether in anger or amusement, even she wasn’t sure.

“Lavellan,” she said and the only response she really got was a quick blink. “The Chantry sycophants shove that title down my throat enough. If you can’t bear to call me anything else, then call me by my Clan name.”

He hesitated over the response, but she was stubborn enough to out wait him. “Lavellan,” he conceded. “What can I do to help you prepare for our final battle?”

She eyed him for a long moment, still not sure that she wanted to ask him the questions that she had. The Mark flared hotly against her palm and she flexed it instinctively. It had been a long time since she had paid any attention to the pain, but it was something she could focus on instead of his carefully neutral mask. Solas had always expressed a certain contempt for her People and it had made her reluctant to ask him anything approaching the questions that she needed answers for, but he was the _Fade_ expert.

“Nothing, really,” she said, tucking the Mark against her other elbow once more. “The mounts and packs are ready for the morning and our weapons are being seen to for fighting the dragon.” It was the first time in a long time he wouldn’t be accompanying her, but she wasn’t about to make missions awkward with her personal entanglements. Dorian was as much her brother as any Dalish had been _and_ he could make the recently dead fight on their side… _creepy_ , but useful. She wanted to pace and look anywhere but at Solas, but she held still. There was a long silence in which he regarded her and she weighed her question and how much she actually wanted to tell him.

He might have his own opinions on the matter and his own secrets to keep, but he had never spread around what they talked about or talked down to her. _Except_ , she remembered the slope of his shoulders as he walked away. _He_ thought that she had been distracted from her duty and he cared next to nothing about the People. She _knew_ that he was hiding something more, something that could have helped the People in ways that Abelas might have _if_ it had been handled right. There _had_ been those letters from two separate Clan Keepers hinting that there _might_ have been an elf who came to them claiming knowledge that contradicted their own and fit the description of a certain elf. _She_ suspected that there had been mistrust and misinterpretation on all sides, _but_ …

The People were _her_ duty. Seeing to their protection and the understanding of tradition had been something that had driven her most of her life, first as part of Clan Lavellan’s First and then as Inquisitor. She’d played too many parts this last year in her research and her duties to give it up now.

In the end, she _didn’t_ trust him in the way that was necessary to entrust him with _this_ idea. He had, after all, assumed he was a _distraction_. And didn’t _that_ just make this all the more bitter, because she still needed answers, _his_ answers.

“Lavellan?” he prompted in her continued silence, still a little hesitant on the address.

“I’d like to discuss what happened before, Solas.”

She needed to understand _how_ his interactions had gone wrong with the Dalish before. Maybe if she understood _that_ it would be easier for her to bridge the gap and bring his knowledge into the plan. There was no place in her People’s future for _her_ ill-hurt _feelings._

 _Some_ thing shifted in his expression, but she didn’t quite understand what…

“I’m afraid that wouldn’t be appropriate at this time. We must focus on what truly matters. Harden your heart to a cutting edge, and put that pain to good use against Corypheus.”

 _“What?”_ Shock reverberated through the single word.

“The answers would only lead to more questions, an emotional entanglement that would benefit neither of us,” he bit out. “The blame is mine, not yours. It was irresponsible and selfish of me. Let that be enough.” He was on the defensive, distancing and retreating in the fastest way he could. Their failed relationship and its end was the easiest path to hurt her and drive home the entire idea that _distance_ was needed.

She was speechless for the space of three heartbeats, mouth open and eyes wide. Did he really…?

 _No_ , she decided and let the bitter smile spread to her lips. Maybe it was better that she didn’t bring Solas into this plan, knowledge or no. Letting him think that she had come here to fight about their relationship was easier than explaining what she had actually meant to ask. _Still_ …

His expression was bland and expressionless and it made her heart harden in the face of everything that she had known with it. It called to the surface the memories of everything she had _had_ with him and made her response sharper than it needed to be. “You really don’t let anyone see under that polite mask you wear, do you?” she asked bitterly.

“You saw more than most,” he replied, almost resigned. “Let me know if I can be of any more help in planning our final fight.”

She considered the different responses she could have made, discarding the first few that tried to leap off her tongue. Finally, she settled on, “No, this isn’t where it ends. I don’t need you for planning to defeat Corypheous. I don’t need your knowledge or abilities for _that_. I need you for the duty that has _always_ been mine.” Duty to the People went beyond her heart and the pains she had suffered at his hands. He was too knowledgeable to let go without a fight, even if half that fight was her _wanting_ him to stay involved in her life in some small part.

It brought him up short. “What, then, _do_ you want?”

She hesitated, warring with duty and how much she _wanted_ him to stay past Coryphoeus’s defeat. It was a choice, in the end, and it wasn’t one that she could make for him, nor was it her place to try and _make_ him stay. Their relationship was done, she was sure of it, and the People remained and it was for the People that she had fought so hard to get this far.

Glancing at her Mark, she flexed her hand and thought back on the plan and the duty until it was the only thing left. “Corypheus might be an insane madman, but he’s done more for my People than any human ever did. This Mark is a key and, after Corypheus is defeated, I have plans for it that the Keepers have agreed to indulge me in. What I need are-”

“No,” Solas said flatly.

Her gaze flicked to him. “No?” she repeated, her voice bland as her gaze flicked back towards him.

“You cannot use it in that manner,” he answered, stepping towards her. “To use it as Corypheus intends-” he cut himself off in the middle of his own sentence and looked away, his hands closing into fists before he could look at her again. “It is dangerous and foolish to do what you intend.”

She tucked her hand into her side again and regarded him with a measured _look_. “Is it?” she asked, her voice unchanged. “I’ve been writing back and forth with the different Clans for the better part of a year, gathering all of the knowledge that I can, and consulting with _most_ of the experts at my disposal.” She studied him again, trying to gauge where this worry had come from.

“Most? And you did not think to ask me?” he asked and the tone was almost careful.

One shoulder rose and then dropped in a shrug. “I’m here, _now,_ aren’t I? I’m hardly going to engage in something if its going to bring to rip the world apart at its seams. I’ve fought too damn hard to see it fall apart now, even for the People.”

There was a long silence as he studied her, his features settled back into the politely disinterested mask she had known so early in their acquaintance. “What, then, is your goal? For your _People?”_

She could hear the disapproval in the word and her lips curled at it. “To keep them _safe_. To see them move forward from the _old_ ways and establish something for themselves.”

“And you propose to use the _Mark_ for that? It is a child’s dream!” he returned.

“Ma banal las halamshir var vhen,” she snapped at him, finally fed up with everything. Far be it from her to drag him into what she was trying to do. There were other places that she could seek her answers

“I have done no such thing!” he snarled back. “I simply see no way to help the elves, oppressed as they are now.”

“And the man who has lived half his life in the _Fade_ has no ideas? None at all?!” she challenged him, spreading her arms wide.

“Not unless we collapse the Veil and bring the Fade here so I can casually reshape reality, no.”

Which was exactly what she _didn’t_ want to do, not all at once. Everything that she knew about the Beyond said that tearing down the Veil between the two places would only result in Corypheus’ original goal, but it was still hard for her to fathom that Solas had no ideas of his own as to the gentle merging of the two sides of the Veil.

“You’re a Dreamer!” she nearly yelled, the frustration finally bleeding over. He _had_ to have _some_ idea as to…

“ _You_ are the Inquisitor. You could order Halamshiral returned to the Dalish, if you wished. But ultimately, you know that would fail. That even you cannot solve this. Why attack me for knowing that as well?”

“Because you’ve given up, and I _haven’t_. I’ll find a way to help elves, with or without your help.”

“And in all sincerity, I wish you luck. For my part, I will do what I can.”

They stared at each other for three heartbeats before she felt something slide out of reach. Whatever his reasons, they were his own and she would not force the issue. The duty to _her_ People was _hers._ Whatever Solas didn’t want to share, whatever his views, _it didn’t matter._ There were other places to seek and gain her answers.

“Fine,” she said softly. “Do as it pleases you, vhenan. I wish you luck in your own path, then.”

She turned and walked away from him, never once glancing back as she chose her own path. Whatever the price or pain, she would see her People thrive and move beyond the chains that had bound them for so long to the past. That was her duty to them.


End file.
